10-month-old baby choked to death on tiny piece of apple at nursery

A baby choked to death on a tiny piece of apple given to her at nursery, an inquest has heard.

Georgia Hollick was only ten months old when she died at the Just Learning Nursery – where another baby broke her arm 18 months earlier.

Her mother Sharon claims the nursery ignored her instructions about how to feed Georgia, who choked on a slice of apple less than a centimetre long.

She said she had a meeting with the nursery manager to express her concerns six days before Georgia died.

Mrs Hollick, from Cambourne, Cambridgeshire, cried as she described dropping her daughter off at nursery on April 19 this year. "I kissed her and said 'be a good girl' and then I went to work as usual."

Only a few days earlier, she had complained to the nursery after seeing her daughter eating strawberries on the floor rather than a high chair.

She said: "She was sitting among squashed strawberries. She was soaking wet and had been feeding herself strawberries in her hands."

She also told the inquest at Shire Hall in Cambridge she had asked staff to give Georgia a drink with her snack to help her swallow food.

But she said that on the day she died she later picked up the full cup of water she had delivered to the nursery that morning.

Mrs Hollick, said her three-year-old daughter Jasmine with husband Jason also went to Just Learning in Cambourne.

She told the inquest that when she first looked at the nursery she had asked about a previous incident in which a 15-month old girl had broken her arm.

She said she had been reassured that none of the staff present at that time of the incident were still working there.

But she told the inquest she found out that one worker who had been involved was with Georgia regularly. "I wouldn’t have allowed my children to go there had I known that," she added.

The inquest heard from nursery nurse Carla Woods, who had been questioned by police when the 15-month-old girl broke her arm.

Mrs Woods, who was in charge of the room that Georgia was in, described how she had peeled and sliced up two apples and put them on to three plates, each containing 20 thin slices.

She said she then went into another room, leaving one plate in the room with another carer called Sam. She said: "I was away about five minutes, when I came back I saw Georgia was coughing. Sam was patting her on the back. I took Georgia off her as she was going blue."

She said she gave her back slaps between her shoulder blades which had no effect. Paramedics were called and Georgia was taken to Addenbrooke’s Hospital where she was certified dead at 10.46am.

A post mortem examination revealed that Georgia had died from asphyxiation due to her upper airway being obstructed after breathing in a small piece of apple measuring only 0.8cm at its largest point.

Police were called into the nursery in September 2004 after a 15-month-old girl broke her arm. The incident resulted in charges of child cruelty against three members of staff.

But the case was dropped when the Crown Prosecution Service decided there was insufficient evidence, and the workers were re-instated.

The nursery, part of a national chain, opened in Cambourne in 2001. The company’s managing director is Michael Fallon, Conservative MP for Sevenoaks.

Cambridgeshire Police have confirmed they will not be pressing charges against staff at the nursery after Georgia Hollick’s death. The inquest continues.